"In fact, in front of another noun is a normal place for an English noun to be"

This would imply that the sentence "following another noun is a normal place for an English noun to be" should be equally true.

But I don't understand why you say that, for example, 'day' in the phrase 'day student' is playing a noun role more than an adjective role. Isn't it telling us what kind of student is in question? I tend to think of it in this fashion:

advanced studentpart-time studentadult studentday student

Here, 'advanced' is obviously an adjective, 'part-time' less obviously so, 'adult' could be argued either way as adjective or noun, 'day' is a noun. But aren't all four filling essentially similar roles, namely to tell us more about the kind of student we are dealing with? This seems like a closer description of the normal role of the adjective to me than it is of the role of a noun.

Not trying to be smart-alecky here; this is something that genuinely puzzles me.